EU wants to police drivers with black boxes in cars
Black box recorders, or Event Data Recorders (EDR) to give them their official title, have been fitted on aircraft for decades. They help investigators piece together what happened after an accident occurs, with the last actions of the pilot recorded for posterity. But could a similar sort of scheme work in cars? And if so, should it be compulsory to fit EDRs in every vehicle on the road?
Black box recorders are apparently already used in this way in the United States. Manufacturers agreed to fit them on a voluntary basis and two-thirds of new cars sold in America have them installed.
According to The Times, The European Union is now considering plans to do something similar on the continent, although as is generally the EU’s way, this will be compulsory rather than voluntary. The idea has sprung from a three-year study called Project Veronica which cost around $4 million and was put into operation by the transport arm of the European Commission.
The black box recorders would reportedly record 20 types of date from the car’s engine and braking system. The system would kick in when there is an unusual change in speed or when an airbag is inflated. The idea is that for 30 seconds prior to a crash and 15 seconds after a crash, the state of the car and what the driver was doing would be recorded for later analysis. This would include the speed the vehicle was traveling at, the direction the wheels were facing at any given moment, and whether the brakes were applied or not.
There are some obvious concerns about this being another Big Brother-style element of 1984 creeping into our everyday lives. But the EU is justifying the move by insisting it’s meant purely to help police and insurers know what happened during an accident. There’s also a chance that just having the boxes installed on vehicles would cut accident rates because drivers would be more aware of their conduct on the roads.
The downsides to this scheme, if it comes to fruition, are the costs involved (each EDR costing $800), and the chances of insurance companies using the data collected to make unfair assessments of people’s ability to drive and upping their insurance rates as a result.
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